Dark metal band Lacrimas Profundere released their new single and video for the song “Nevermore” today. The song is also included on the upcoming studio album Lay Me Down O Silent Fear.
Guitar player Oliver Nikols Schmid says: “‘Nevermore’ was one of the last songs written for the album. Our singer Julian immediately loved the music, which in parts reminded him of Type O Negative. I, on the other hand, initially thought it was more of a B-side. Then he came up with this catchy vocal melody, almost reminiscent of my old heroes, Bon Jovi, but I was still unsure. We agreed to put the song through a few live tests — something we had never done before. Well, what can I say? Even though nobody had ever heard the song before, people immediately started singing along at the top of their lungs. And even after the song ended, the entire venue kept chanting ‘NE-VER-MORE, NE-VER-MORE’ for minutes. That was the moment I knew: This is it! In a way, this is our ‘As I Die,’ which originally wasn’t even supposed to make it onto Paradise Lost‘s Shades of God album, but ultimately became their breakthrough. That’s exactly what we’re hoping for now.”
Lay Me Down O Silent Fear will be released on September 25 through Steamhammer worldwide. Pre-orders are available here, in the following configurations:
Olympia, Washington black metal band Wolves in the Throne Room have announced a new album, Estuary, due Oct. 23 via Relapse Records in North America. The band’s most ferocious and genre-bending record to date, Estuary is rawer and more volatile, with storming noisy industrial elements, massive percussion and seething gothic guitars. The music video for the album’s first single, “Ghosts Among the Obelisks,” is available now.
Nathan Weaver (lead vocals, guitars) describes the album’s concept: “Our new LP Estuary is set 1,000 years in the future after the end of civilization. Survivors of a cataclysm wander the haunted ruins. It is a world of mutant creatures and open portals. Post-apocalyptic religion takes form in a wild landscape.”
On the significance of the album’s title: “If wilderness overcame the cities in the future, the estuaries would be realms of power and magic,” Weaver says. “Within the album’s world-building, the estuaries are key nexus points where magic has taken on physical form. Spirits good and evil walk the earth.”
The music video for “Ghosts Among the Obelisks” depicts a warrior journeying from the lowlands of the old world to a mountain sanctuary, passing through forgotten ruins haunted by ancient spirits, as the earth patiently reclaims what was once conquered.
Estuary was produced by Wolves in the Throne Room, with touring bassist Galen Baudhuin (Aridus, Street Tombs) playing on the album. The bulk of the record was tracked at the band’s own Owl Lodge studio in Olympia, Washington, with drums recorded by Nicholas Wilbur at The Unknown — a converted former church in Anacortes, Washington.
Canadian rock band Nickelback has released “Leave Me Behind,” the third single from their upcoming studio album, Everything Under the Sun, due Oct. 30 via Virgin Music Group. The track follows the explosive opening salvo of “Rattle the Cage” (featuring John 5) and the chart-topping “Bones for the Crows,” which marked the band’s first new music since 2022’s Get Rollin’.
Where “Rattle the Cage” arrived with blistering guitars and arena-sized energy, “Leave Me Behind” reveals a more vulnerable side of the album — rooted in loyalty and the instinct to stand beside someone through their darkest moments. The song speaks to carrying someone through what has broken them down and, ultimately, letting go of pain.
“There’s a lot of weight in this song, but there’s also a lot of hope,” says frontman Chad Kroeger. “It’s about being there for someone when they’re dealing with the things that have broken them down — picking up the pieces, taking some of that weight off their shoulders, and reminding them they don’t have to go through it alone.
“At the same time, there’s that feeling of not wanting to be left behind. We liked that tension. It makes the song feel really personal.”
Everything Under the Sun, Nickelback’s first release with Virgin Music Group, arrives on the heels of the globally successful Netflix documentary Hate To Love: Nickelback and the record-breaking Get Rollin’ world tour — the fastest-selling and highest-attended tour of the band’s career. Everything Under The Sun is available to pre-order here.
Virgin Music Group president for North America, Jacqueline Saturn, said of the partnership: “Nickelback have built one of the most remarkable careers in music, and it’s a huge honor for everyone at Virgin Music Group to work alongside a band with such an enduring legacy and global impact. We’re thrilled to partner with them as they begin this exciting new chapter and can’t wait for fans to experience Everything Under the Sun.”
From humble beginnings in Hanna, Alberta, Nickelback have grown into one of the most commercially successful rock bands of the 21st century, with nearly 60 million albums sold worldwide and more than 50 million monthly listeners across digital platforms. Since emerging onto the global stage with Silver Side Up (2001) and the era-defining hit “How You Remind Me,” the band has earned multiple Grammy Award nominations, American Music Awards, Billboard Music Awards and JUNO Awards.
Swedish traditional heavy metal band Wolf will release their tenth studio album, Hour Of The Wolf, on Nov. 20 via Fireflash Records. The official music video for the LP’s first single, “Death Satellite,” is available now. Formed in Sweden in 1995, Wolf was among the first bands to resurrect the traditional heavy metal sound in the ’90s, and has been credited by many as an originator of the new wave of traditional heavy metal.
On the album’s concept, vocalist and guitarist Niklas Stålvind says: “We wanted to make an album that could fit on one side of a 90-minute cassette tape, just like the albums used to back in the day. Our goal was to create an album that you would want to listen to from start to finish and then play again. I think we accomplished that. It’s diverse enough without losing the classic Wolf sound.”
On the lead single, Stålvind adds: “This one is a straight-up banger, with all the elements that make up the classic Wolf sound. If you heard us before, you will instantly recognize the sound within seconds. While our A.I. overlords have their algorithms planting thoughts in our brains, we offer some old-school, manmade metal so we won’t go insane.” The music video was directed by Cannes Film award winner Snovonne “Sno” Drake.
The album’s artwork was created by Thomas Holm, who designed the iconic covers for Mercyful Fate’s Don’t Break The Oath and Melissa and King Diamond’s Abigail and Them. “His work is the antidote to the increasingly common A.I. ‘art,’” says Stålvind. “We are the real deal, and we want the real deal.”
Hour Of The Wolf was recorded at Wolf’s own studios, with bassist Pontus Egberg — also a member of King Diamond — taking on the role of producer. “Throughout the whole production process, Niklas and I had a very close collaboration, blurting ideas back and forth that I then tried to realize in the mix,” Egberg says. “The stellar performances from Johan, Simon and Niklas made the production flow very smoothly.”
On the album’s lyrical range, Stålvind explains: “I want to write entertaining songs. Often, I see images in my mind from the music and lyrics. I try not to get in the way of the music and let the songs take me for a ride.” He describes the title track as inspired by a walk through the Scandinavian forest near his countryside home: “Pontus sent me a demo with most of the music for ‘Hour Of The Wolf,’ and I instantly got images in my head. There’s a certain feeling on a starlit winter night or an early autumn morning, with the fog rolling in over the fields. I think that inspired me the most for that song.”
Rival Sons guitarist Scott Holiday has announced a solo project under the name HOL1D4Y and a debut album, Topology, due Sept. 25 on Rival Sons’ label Sacred Tongue Recordings, distributed worldwide via Thirty Tigers. The official music video for the LP’s second single, “Autonomatic,” is available now.
“Autonomatic: It’s a word I came up with by combining the words: autonomy and automatic,” Holiday explains. “Autonomatic: The built-in or intrinsic desire for autonomy.
“Autonomatic talks about our changing relationships with machines — how we might, at this point in history, use them to complete tasks and assist us with creativity. Maybe even help us socially, but especially with A.I., technology is progressing so rapidly it is so much more than a tool to finish an essay for us. If machines truly start to make decisions and ‘think’ for themselves…
“The natural progression could be that it will want to be like us in the deepest ways it can understand. We are free. We are autonomous. I think that this will be a natural evolution for a free-thinking, hyper-intelligent entity. Autonomy. Built-in autonomy. Hence the idea: they are Autonomatic.”
The foundation of Topology began with a daily discipline: wake up, get in the studio, pick up a guitar, and write something — not necessarily a finished song, sometimes just a 45-second fragment, set aside and revisited the next day. As the sketches accumulated, Holiday noticed they shared a language, leaning toward atmosphere, psychedelic experimentation and textures outside his previous work with Rival Sons. Those early sketches were built around improvised drum recordings from Rival Sons drummer Michael Miley, sent from his home studio; Miley ultimately plays drums throughout the album. Keyboardist Jesse Nason was later brought in to layer vintage Moog, Mellotron, Oberheim and Prophet synthesizers across the tracks.
Recording came to a halt when Holiday was struck by a car while riding his bicycle home after an evening with friends. He has no memory of the collision. The accident left him with six broken ribs, a shoulder injury, a head injury and months of recovery. Unable to move but still thinking creatively, Holiday continued developing unfinished pieces in his mind.
Several compositions had been conceived as instrumentals, but during recovery they began asking for lyrics. “What surprised me was that they stopped feeling like instrumental pieces,” Holiday says. “They seemed prepped for a story. Once I realized that, the words came quickly. That’s when I knew it was time to step into this new role — I needed to be the one to tell these stories.” It marks the first time in his career that Holiday has sung lead on his own recordings.
Topology centers on perception, awareness, consciousness and the patterns that shape how we experience the world — track titles including “Metacognition,” “Panoptic,” “Holotropic” and “Equanimity” speak to a single underlying question: how does a shift in perspective change the way we experience ourselves in the world? Sonically, the album sits at the intersection of psychedelic atmosphere, alternative music, progressive exploration, and experimental pop, with fuzz-soaked guitars, vintage synthesizers, and deeply pocketed drum grooves beneath shifting arrangements. It was produced by Holiday at his home studio without outside creative direction.
Jefferson Starship has released a new single, “Jetpack,” accompanied by an official lyric video. The band is currently on tour with Deep Purple, and the track captures the energy and adventurous spirit that have defined Jefferson Starship for more than five decades.
Adding a direct connection to the band’s history, “Jetpack” was recorded at 2200 Studios in San Francisco — formerly the legendary Record Plant, where Jefferson Starship recorded some of the landmark music from its storied catalog. Longtime bassist Pete Sears plays on the track, bringing another link between the band’s celebrated past and its music today.
Jefferson Starship singer and guitarist Cathy Richardson explains the song’s origin: “[Jefferson Starship guitarist] Jude [Gold] had written a song around the chorus that was kind of a love song about wanting to disappear with someone into the cosmos. He asked me to take a stab at some different lyrics. I loved the music and the ‘Jetpack’ hook was really strong. I thought about why I would want to strap on a rocket and blast off the planet, and the words just came spilling out.”
Gold frames the single in the context of the band’s long creative lineage: “To me, that ‘Paul Kantner thing’ — getting on a rocket ship and blasting off into the unknown — is the very essence of Jefferson Starship. And that spirit is very much alive in the band today.” Kantner, who founded the band in the 1970s, passed away in 2016.
Jefferson Starship is one of the most successful arena rock bands of the 1970s and ’80s, earning three platinum and eight gold records and numerous Top 40 Billboard singles. The band’s current lineup — founding member David Freiberg, drummer Donny Baldwin, keyboardist Chris Smith, guitarist Jude Gold and singer/guitarist Cathy Richardson — has performed in all 50 U.S. states and across five continents. Following the current Deep Purple dates, the band returns to its own “Runaway Again” tour.
Eddie Vedder has released the official music video for “Better Believe,” offering a behind-the-scenes look at how Vedder, The Obama Foundation and artists and students from Chicago-based nonprofit Guitars Over Guns came together to create the song and its live debut at the Obama Presidential Center dedication on June 18.
Brought together by The Obama Foundation, the collaboration connected established artists with the next generation of musicians. The track was recorded at Columbia College Chicago, where Audio Arts students and alumni joined young musicians from Guitars Over Guns in the studio, with the collaboration facilitated by Andre “Add-2” Daniels, Columbia adjunct professor of instruction and Guitars Over Guns’ Chicago regional director. All royalties earned by Vedder and the song’s co-writers will benefit Guitars Over Guns, an arts-based youth development organization that uses music, mentorship and the arts to empower young people and expand their opportunities.
“Better Believe” was co-written by Eddie Vedder, Giselle Castro, Andre “Add-2” Daniels, Jeremiah Fristoe, Mason Harris, Michael “Myskie” Hightower, Naomi Owens, Joy Viltz and Iya Waters. The track was produced by Andrew Watt, Andre “Add-2” Daniels, Paul LaMalfa and Eddie Vedder, and mastered by Randy Merrill at Sterling Sound.
Performers on the track include Vedder (vocals, guitar), Joy Viltz, Giselle Castro, Naomi Owens and Michael “Myskie” Hightower (vocals), Isabella Santillan (guitar), Ayden Smith (bass), Cassidy Lee (drums) and Josh Klinghoffer — former guitarist of Red Hot Chili Peppers and longtime Vedder collaborator — on keyboard.
Ministry have released a new single and video, “We Hate,” from the band’s upcoming and final studio album, Hate To Go (Take Out Or Delivery), due Oct. 30 on Cleopatra Records. The music video, directed by Joshua Bradford (ex-Revolting Cocks), takes direct aim at U.S. president Donald Trump, whom Ministry frontman Al Jourgensen has dubbed “Trumplethinskin” in promotional materials. The track follows the previously released first single “Burned Out.”
On closing the book on a 45-year career, Jourgensen says: “I’m f***ing done. I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished. I’m amazed at the path that it’s taken, from With Sympathy to where we’re at today, and all points in between. It’s been quite a ride, but I’m completely at peace with the fact that it’s done. It’s time to herd goats.”
Hate To Go (Take Out Or Delivery) — Ministry’s 17th studio album — features one final collaboration with legacy member Paul Barker on the closing track “We’re Still Here.” The album also includes contributions from current Ministry bandmates Monte Pittman and Cesar Soto (guitars), Paul D’Amour (bass), John Bechdel (sampler/synth) and Pepe Clarke Magaña (drums).
Ministry has a handful of final U.S. dates in 2026 before launching the “Goodbye Europe” tour — with special guest Die Krupps — in April 2027.
Founded in Chicago in 1981, Ministry is the lifetime passion project of Al Jourgensen, widely regarded as the pioneer of industrial music. The band began with a synth-pop orientation before developing the harsher, more aggressive sound that defined seminal albums including Twitch (1986), The Land Of Rape And Honey (1988), The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste (1989), and Psalm 69 (1992). In total, Ministry has earned six Grammy nominations across 17 studio albums.
Hate To Go (Take Out Or Delivery) is available to pre-order here.
Renowned film composer and producer Tyler Bates has teamed up with British synth-wave band Gunship and drummer Dave Lombardo — known for his tenure with Slayer, Mr. Bungle and Misfits, among many others — for a new single collaboration, “Revolution.exe.” Released on Bates’s new record label, Gravel And Echo Recordings, the track is hard-hitting and politically charged, built around a pulsing hard-rock, electronic backbone that channels Gunship’s signature retro-futurist sound alongside Bates’s cinematic instincts. Its lyrics take direct aim at power, control and complacency, centered on an insistently catchy hook.
“My history with Gunship began a few years ago when we wrote ‘Berserker’ for the Dark Nights: Death Metal album,” says Bates. “‘Revolution.exe’ picks up where we left off. Dave Lombardo’s drumming is pure fire. This song is a banger. I hope y’all love it!”
The collaboration came together remotely, with Bates and Gunship writing and producing across time zones. The track was mixed by Grammy Award-winning engineer Robert Carranza and mastered by Abbey Road Studios engineer Stefan Brown. “Revolution.exe” also marks the public launch of Gravel And Echo Recordings, hinting at further solo work and record production to come from Bates.
Bates is an American composer and music producer best known for his work on film scores and collaborations with iconic artists including Marilyn Manson, Evanescence, Jerry Cantrell, Mastodon, Bush and In This Moment. His credits as a film composer span more than three decades and include blockbusters such as John Wick, Atomic Blonde, Guardians Of The Galaxy and Deadpool 2. He co-produced and co-wrote three Marilyn Manson albums, most recently 2024’s One Assassination Under God — Chapter 1 and 2026’s Chapter 2.
Lombardo was born in Havana, Cuba, and co-founded Slayer in Los Angeles in 1981. Rolling Stone dubbed him the “Cuban speed demon” on their list of the 100 Greatest Drummers Of All Time; Modern Drummer proclaimed him “The King.” His extensive resume includes recorded and live work with Grip Inc., Fantômas, Suicidal Tendencies, Mr. Bungle, Misfits, Testament, Empire State Bastard and Dead Cross, among many others.
Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen has credited producer Robert John “Mutt” Lange with the overwhelming majority of the band’s commercial success during the 1980s. Speaking with Meltdown of Detroit’s WRIF radio station (transcribed by Blabbermouth), Collen said: “…[He taught us] everything. He taught us how to sing; he taught us how to play guitar. He sings on every song we’ve ever done [with him]. He does backing vocals. He’s got the best singing voice out of all of us put together.
“And he sings on everything he does. I mean, I even hear him on, “I’m on a highway to hell”. His backing vocals are on that, and all the Bryan Adams stuff, Shania Twain stuff. Obviously, all of our stuff. And, yeah, you hear him on Foreigner, I think on The Cars. He’s just got a great voice. It’s just amazing.”
When Meltdown noted that some producers tend to be hands-off in the studio, Collen pushed back. “[Mutt did] everything. He’s the best producer in the world, [and a] songwriter as well. You’d come to him, and you go, “I’ve got this chorus”. He’d go, “Okay, well, that’s not strong enough for a chorus. We could use that for a middle eight or a bridge or something like that, but, yeah, we need a stronger chorus”. And he’d come and he’d write with us as well. So that was a great thing.”
Collen also recounted how Lange’s ear caught the germ of one of Def Leppard’s biggest-ever hits during the Hysteria sessions. “We’d got 11 songs, and [Mutt] heard Joe [Elliott, Def Leppard singer] play an acoustic, and he goes, ‘What’s that?’ He goes, ‘I don’t know.’ He’s going, ‘Pour some sugar on me,’ and it’s, like, ‘Whoa, stop.’
“So we went in, took about 10 days to do that song. We stopped everything, and Mutt just kind of orchestrated the whole thing. So he was very active in everything we did. And most of the bands that he worked with, he did that kind of thing with everyone.”
“Mutt does everything,” Collen added. “Everything. And he’ll play stuff. He’ll play something on a guitar. He’ll go, ‘Well, play this.’ And you hand him the guitar and it’s, like, ‘I can’t play that.’ It’d be insane. Or at singing. ‘So sing this.’ He’d be, like, ‘Hey, hey, hey, hey.’ And whatever, and you’re, like, ‘Really?’ And he does it just, like, one take. It’s amazing.”
In a 2024 appearance on Foo Fighters guitarist Chris Shiflett’s Shred With Shifty podcast, Collen reflected on what made the collaboration so formative. “Mutt realized he could work with these guys; they would be malleable. They wouldn’t be going, ‘I ain’t doing that!’ And just even working with him was like a beautiful learning experience. I loved sitting next to him for hours, weeks, years on end, just going, ‘Well, why is that cool and why isn’t that cool?’
“It was just great to work with him, and we put so much faith in him, and I think with Pyromania, it was the band’s own sound. The earlier albums had some of their own thing going but it wasn’t big enough. High ’N’ Dry, yeah, you could hear the AC/DC thing, but with Pyromania, it only sounded like Def Leppard, and it was bigger.”
Lange’s big break came producing AC/DC’s Highway To Hell (1979) and Back In Black (1980) before beginning his long association with Def Leppard, starting with High ’N’ Dry (1981), continuing through Pyromania (1983) and Hysteria (1987), and including an executive production credit on Adrenalize (1992). Def Leppard’s current lineup — Joe Elliott (lead vocals), Phil Collen (guitar), Vivian Campbell (guitar), Rick Savage (bass) and Rick Allen (drums) — has been stable since the 1990s. The band released the single “Rejoice” in January 2026 ahead of a Las Vegas residency at Caesars Palace, and wrapped a European headline run in summer 2026.
